Slate Workers' Boat Sheds, Ballachulish

Group of boat houses (now also used as tool sheds), comprising single, double and triple units, accommodating 11 boats in total. Constructed organically out of blue-grey Ballachulish slate shingle, emerging from man-made harbour banks, themselves created out of quarry refuse. Roughly squared slates laid according to dry-stone technique in horizontal courses forming thick side walls; simple boarded 2-leaf timber doors and over-door panels; mono-pitched roofs of large squared slate slabs laid flat in horizontal and vertical 'crossed' courses: one roof (easternmost boat house) re-slated to a different pattern, in even horizontal courses. One single boat house roofless (1992).

Listed for interest of use of materials and for historic significance of the Ballachulish slate quarries, which began operations from circa 1760. The 1870 map shows 8 boat houses on this site; further boat houses shown to the E of Rudha na - glas lice (='point/headland of the grey flat rock/stone'), and to W (at Cnap an Tairbh, listed separately); it also shows the transport system from the quarries to the S (now cut off from the Lochside by the A82), a tramway running around the circumference of the quarries leading to and from the Lochside to the E of this site. Groome describes this system: iron waggons were, "conveyed on 'lines' along the banks formed by the refuse, and laid down at little sheds, where they are, by one man, split up to the required thickness, and by another, cut into shape, after which they are ready for export.. there are five different descriptions of slate made, viz, queens, duchesses, countesses, sizables, and undersized." (1895, Groome p.112). (Historic Scotland)

30 October 2013: Nominated for the Register by local planners as being in poor condition with only two of the sheds able to be utilised. The local community is seeking the renovation of the buildings to enable their full use. For Investigation.

30 July 2014: External inspection finds the group of boat houses in need of repair and maintenance. Roofs are generally in need of attention and timber elements in need of maintenance or repair. Some of the walls within the area have sections of collapse. Whilst purpose built into the surrounding bank, many of the sheds are now being encroached by earth and general vegetation growth. Move to At Risk.

22 February 2018: External inspection finds the site remains in much the same condition as seen previously.

23 February 2024: Desk-based assessment suggests the building remains At-Risk.